Cut from the same cloth,Bale signed a deal with Real Madrid while Davies ended up at Accrington
WHEN Gareth Bale led Welsh fans and players in a postmatch Icelandic thunderclap following a famous Euro 2016 win over Belgium, Arron Davies was preparing to move to Accrington Stanley on a free transfer.
Despite making their international debuts off the bench in the same game against Trinidad and Tobago 12 years ago, the two Southampton Academy products would take very different paths.
One would go on to lay claim to the title of Welsh football’s greatest ever player, while the other would never play for his country again and sink into lower-league obscurity.
This is the story of how their respective careers panned out...
STARTING AT SOUTHAMPTON
BEFORE earning what proved to be his one and only Welsh cap, and before Bale had even played a minute of first-team football, Davies was being touted as one of the Saints’ brightest young prospects.
A series of impressive performances for the reserves at St Mary’s saw Davies catch the eye of first-team boss Gordon Strachan, who named the midfielder in several match-day squads, and the even gave him a place in the initial 20-man squad for the FA Cup final.
“I was fairly close to Gordon,” Davies remembers. “He made me travel with the first team and got me involved with training daily. He put me on the bench and spoke to me quite a bit.
“He liked the way I played football and he believed in me.”
The then 18-year-old never made the final cut for the 2003 showpiece at Wembley, but his arrival on the outskirts of the first team meant he nevertheless appeared to have a promising future ahead of him.
However, he never made that maiden senior appearance and, after a short loan spell at Barnsley, was released on the same day that Harry Redknapp was installed as Strachan’s successor in December 2004.
Under normal circumstances such a turn of events would be considered a blow to a young player, but Davies interestingly saw it as a blessing in disguise, even at the time.
“They were a Premier League club at the time and I got close. Obviously, though, it wasn’t close enough. I just decided to leave and then that year they got relegated. If I’d stayed, perhaps with hindsight I would have played a bit more in the Championship the year after.
“But it was the best decision I made as I had to go out and get firstteam football. From there, at Yeovil, that’s where my career really started.”
TWO YOUNGSTERS CATCH THE EYE
DAVIES soon started to build on his potential, and blossomed at Yeovil under boss Gary Johnson, a manager he would end up working under on three separate occasions in his career.
It proved a tough, but thoroughly worthwhile assignment for the midfielder, who relished the sink-orswim atmosphere that was arguably a million miles away from what he was used to as a pampered trainee looking to break into the ranks of a Premier League club.
“There was a bit of a culture shock. It sort of turned me from being a youngster into being a man footballing wise. You go from being in the academy and being wrapped up like a Premier League footballer and everything is, not quite given to you, but everything is still sort of there.
“I was in a hotel above a pub at Yeovil at first. It was a shock and it woke me up. It prepared me for a man’s environment and I grew up very, very quickly.”
2006 proved to be the breakthrough year he was looking for, with Davies scoring eight goals in 39 appearances for the Glovers, having previously played a big part of their League Two championship winning side in the previous campaign.
It was, of course, an important year for Bale too, who became Southampton’s second-youngest player after making his debut in a 2-0 win over Millwall in April.
Their respective rises were starting to attract attention, with Brian Flynn calling both players up to the Wales under-21s set-up, where they would become room-mates and, indeed, good friends.
That’s not to say they didn’t have their disagreements, however.
Davies, who was actually handed the captaincy by Flynn, remembers showing little hesitation in laying down the law on the up-and-coming superstar, who was then just 16.
He recalls: “There was one time we played Estonia at home and Gareth put the ball down to take the freekick and I said ‘no, I take these’ and then I stepped up and scored it.
“I think that’s probably my claim to fame now!”
Captaining a future legend of the game is perhaps a stronger claim, but Bale’s incredible talent was obvious to Davies even back then.
“From the moment I first saw him in training I knew he was going to be very special. I think he had one game or perhaps two games before he went up to the senior squad and deservedly so. You could tell he was different to anyone else.”
When John Toshack called the duo up to the senior squad for a friendly with Trinidad in Austria three days later, it seemed that all the hard work was finally starting to lead to something special.
Bale was introduced from the bench on 55 minutes, becoming Wales’ youngest-ever player, before being joined by his former skipper 13 minutes later.
Memories of that night in Austria are still as strong as ever.
“It was just surreal. I remember warming up, desperate to get on and when Tosh gave me the call I was absolutely buzzing, trying to get a touch as soon as possible.
“It was only 15 or 20 minutes, but it was everything you ever work towards as a kid. Some people may have seen it as an end-of-season friendly, but for me it was one of my career highlights. It was massive for me. I’ll always have that one cap on my CV.”
“Some things money can’t buy and a Wales cap is one of them.”
THE GAME THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
DAVIES didn’t have to wait long before coming up against his new international team-mate once again, with the pair facing off against each other at St Mary’s in the League Cup the following season.
“I was very aware of how good he was when we played them in the cup the following August. I had to actually mark him, so I had a very good idea on how he was doing!
“Of course, I knew by that point just how good he was going to be, not just by talking to people at Southampton but also through playing against him in that game.”
Southampton would cruise to a 5-2 win on that occasion, but things nevertheless looked promising for Davies, whose relationship with
Wales boss Toshack must have surely left him optimistic about his chances of adding to his interTosh national cap tally. Davies remembers as a quiet but engaging character in the Wales camp and, like so many others lucky enough to work under his stewardship, speaks of him with plenty of fondness.
“I actually used to see him quite a bit back in Cowbridge when I went back home to Llantwit Major,” Davies explains. “He used to sit outside one of the pubs having a pint. He always remembered my name, which is great and he’s always said hello.
“I really thought that the first cap in Austria was going to be the first of many. I got my first and then I moved to Nottingham Forest not too long after and it felt like that was it.”
By the time 23-year-old had arrived at the City Ground in the summer of 2007, he’d earned himself a reputation as one of the most exciting players in the lower leagues and seemingly had a real future in inter-
national football. But one incident during a pre-season game at Motherwell would change everything.
“I just got a little nudge off balance and stumbled on my leg,” he remembers.
“It was a spiral fracture and a chip on the bone, rather than a clean break which might have been easier to fix going forward.
“From there it felt it was a constant struggle.”
Davies had broken his leg and, despite recovering to make his debut in the October of 2007, saw his three years in the East Midlands blighted by injury. He would go on to play just 40 times for the Reds.
Injuries didn’t just wreck hopes of an impact with Forest, but also forced Davies to turn down several international call-ups, including a showdown with Georgia at the Liberty Stadium.
But Davies himself likes to keep a philosophical view on things, despite his struggles at Forest coinciding with a meteoric rise for former teammate Bale, who by this time had completed his big move to Tottenham.
“We’d kept in touch. We had a lot of mutual friends because of our time at Southampton and the family back then were close as well.
“It was obviously a tough start for him at Spurs.
“He was getting lots and lots of stick and there was even talk that he might be coming on loan to Forest when I was there, but he bounced back and that just shows how talented he is.”
“Watching one of your former team-mates achieve so much when you’re in and out of the treatment room can’t be easy, but Davies insists he’s delighted to see one of his former team-mates perform so well.
“You always want anyone you’ve played with to go on and do well. I’m happy when people succeed, I’m not one of them that thinks it could’ve been me.
“I’m happy to have played with some players that have gone on and played at the top, and all in all, I think I’ve had an honest career.”
BOUNCING BACK
BY the time Bale had completed his world-record move to Real Madrid, Davies had enjoyed spells at Peterborough United, Northampton and even a return to Yeovil, before eventually settling down at League Two side Exeter City.
The move to the Grecians proved to be a good one, with Davies banishing his injury demons to establish himself as a firm fans’ favourite, making 136 appearances over four seasons for the club, before ending his career at Accrington Stanley in 2016.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Davies lost contact with his more illustrious former team-mate, while his dreams of making it to the top for club and county were similarly lost well over the horizon.
“If ever I saw him I’d love to say hello, but I don’t think we’re in passing circles these days,” the 34-yearold says with a smile.
But there are no regrets, with Davies now using his experience as a player to help him in his new career as an agent, a position he’s held for around a year now.
“In fact, the seeds for it were actually sown during the tail end of his playing days.
“Throughout my time as a player people sort of gauged my advice on things and came to me, so I leaned towards that and did my badges as well.
“Even when I was playing League Two football I had friends in the Premier League that were ringing me and asking for advice.
“It was something I always liked doing, so I’m doing it full-time. It’s enjoyable, it’s demanding and it keeps me in football and I can’t ever picture not being involved in football.
“Obviously, looking back, I would like to have played that game at Motherwell and not broken my leg.
“But, to be honest, I wouldn’t change anything. You’ve got to stand by the decisions that you make and I think you end up where you should be.”